Bowl projections: College Football Playoff gets one lock team after Week 9

Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels are nearly assured of a spot in the College Football Playoff field.
Oklahoma, which lost to Ole Miss on Saturday, Oct. 25, faces an uphill battle to make the College Football Playoff.
Utah faces Cincinnati in Week 10 in a huge game in the Big 12 Conference race.

It’s the eve of November, and we can already write one team into the College Football Playoff with a pen.

Lane Kiffin’s team has benefited from two significant breaks – an easier-than-expected schedule with the LSU, South Carolina and Florida slumping and an injury to Austn Simmons that allowed Trinidad Chambliss to become the team’s starting quarterback.

That’s in no way a criticism of Mississippi’s success. You play the hand you are dealt. And Lane Kiffin is holding all the cards at this point. Even a surprise loss wouldn’t likely knock the Rebels from the field given the warts on all the other contenders.

The loser in this week’s bowl projections is the team the Rebels beat on Saturday. Oklahoma is now fighting uphill to make the field given games at Tennessee and Alabama are effectively must-wins.

Week 10 presents more opportunities to step forward or fall out. The Sooners have that aforementioned trip to Rocky Top that could boost them or the Volunteers. Vanderbilt or Texas are going to get a huge win when the teams meet. Utah and Cincinnati have a huge game with big stakes in the Big 12 that precedes a dangerous trip for Texas Tech to Kansas State. We’ll reconvene next week to make sense of it.

Note: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season.